Historians to mark the 300th anniversary of Boon Island shipwreck

The shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island, a tale of winter survival and cannibalism, is a story that still fascinates 300 years later.

Susan Morse

The shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island, a tale of winter survival and cannibalism, is a story that still fascinates 300 years later.

Richard Bowen, program specialist for The Museums of Old York in York, and lighthouse expert Jeremy D'Entremont of Portsmouth, N.H., will commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Nottingham Galley shipwreck at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at Nubble Light, Sohier Park in York.

On a clear day, Boon Island can be seen from the York shoreline, six miles out to sea.

"I would place it in the top 10 New England shipwrecks," said D'Entremont, author of "Great Shipwrecks of the Maine Coast."

"How horrible it must have been out there, the misery of being shipwrecked and crawling up on rocks in a storm," Bowen said. "If something like that happened today, people would be quickly rescued. Surviving hardship is a topic that fascinates."

Stephen Erickson of Portsmouth recently published an article about the Nottingham Galley shipwreck in the New England Quarterly. "These sailors were particularly ill-equipped for the conditions they faced," he said. "They had no fire, they didn't get off (the ship) with a single overcoat, there was almost no food. They picked up cheese found floating in the water and soon suffered hypothermia ... it was a particularly miserable set of circumstances."

The Nottingham Galley was on its way from England to Ireland and then to Boston when it crashed into Boon Island during a sleet storm Dec. 11, 1710. All 14 men aboard survived the wreck, crawling up the slippery rocks onto the 300-by-700-foot rock that is Boon Island. At only 14 feet above sea level, the men didn't know that first night whether the entire island would soon be covered by water, according to D'Entremont.

As the first Boon Island lighthouse was built in the 1800s, there was no shelter. The men made a makeshift tent out of sailcloth, where they slept on bare rock. First Mate Christopher Langman managed to kill a seagull, which was eaten raw because there was no wood for a fire.

The cook died on the second night. "People say they ate the cook ... they were not desperate enough at that point," D'Entremont said.

When the ship's carpenter died about two weeks later, the men were desperate. Capt. John Deane cut the flesh into thin slices and wrapped the pieces in seaweed. The man's head, hands, feet and bowels were buried at sea, according to stories written by D'Entremont.

Two other men drowned at sea in an attempt to get to the mainland aboard a raft made out of wood from the ship. Rescue for the remaining men came 24 days after the shipwreck, when people on the mainland discovered the raft and sent a search party looking for survivors. The men were taken to Portsmouth.

Two opposing accounts of the voyage and shipwreck emerged, one from the side of Capt. Deane, and the other from his first mate.

Langman filed a deposition before Samuel Penhallow, a justice of the peace in Portsmouth, according to D'Entremont. Langman's statement, backed by two other crewmen from the Nottingham Galley, claimed Deane tried to turn the ship over to privateers near England and had then deliberately wrecked it so he and the other investors could collect insurance money.

Erickson said when the first mate and others learned of Deane's attempt to turn the ship over to French privateers, they mutinied and forced Deane to continue on to Boston.

"I believe it was about smuggling and treason, not insurance fraud," Erickson said.

Local author Kenneth Roberts told the story from the captain's point of view in his 1956 novel, "Boon Island."

Whether the captain was a hero or traitor, the story of the Nottingham Galley shipwreck has become the stuff of legend.

New England historian and "Flying Santa" Edward Rowe Snow wrote about it in "Great Storms and Famous Shipwrecks of the New England Coast." From 1936 to 1980, Snow was famous for hiring a small plane, and later a helicopter, to drop wrapped gifts to lighthouse keepers.

Erickson is working on a book called "Cold Rock: The Horrific Story of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island Maine and the Story of the Story."

In its December issue, Down East Magazine also honors the anniversary of the Nottingham Galley shipwreck in a story called "They Asked if They Could Eat the Body."

"In its day it was hugely famous," D'Entremont said. "The fact that we still remember it 300 years later is saying something. For me, it's a great survival story."

In 1995, archaeologist Warren Riess of the University of Maine retrieved nine small iron cannons, cannonballs, musket shot and other artifacts believed to be from the Nottingham Galley. The cannons are in the collection of the Maine State Museum in Augusta, D'Entremont said.

Boon Island and the lighthouse is owned and maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. In May 2000, the Coast Guard leased the lighthouse to the American Lighthouse Foundation for its restoration and preservation. D'Entremont is involved in raising funds and awareness for saving that lighthouse and others.

D'Entremont and Bowen also have planned an event for Jan. 23, at the Remick Barn in York. "It's a history of shipwrecks, lighthouses, cannibalism ... something for everybody," Bowen said. "We're bouncing ideas around now. It's a very appealing topic."

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